Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren speak at a progressive rally on March 31, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

On Facebook, it pays to be very liberal or very conservative. Moderation tanks. According to a new study from the Pew Research Center, moderate politicians attract far fewer Facebook followers than the most liberal and conservative members of the U.S. Congress.

Revealing both a cause and symptom of America’s deep political divide, Pew found that “ideology is a strong predictor of the number of people who follow [Congressional members] on Facebook.”

In the Senate, the most liberal and conservative members attract a median of 78,360 Facebook followers. Moderates get 32,626 followers. Similar dynamics occur in the House, where liberals and conservative have a median of 14,361 followers, compared to only 9,017 for moderates.

Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy has more Facebook followers than any other member of Congress: 1.3 million. Gowdy chaired the controversial Benghazi committee which investigated Hillary Clinton.

Prominent liberals like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris have many more followers than moderates like Jon Tester or Joe Manchin.

Pew Research Center

Vertical scale is logarithmic. Estimated ideology for each member of Congress is based on roll call votes (DW-NOMINATE). The blue/red lines show the relationship between each legislator’s number of followers and their ideology. The shaded region is the estimate’s 95% confidence band. Source: Pew Research Center analysis of data from Facebook OpenGraph API, and Voteview.org. PEW RESEARCH CENTER.

It also pays to run for president or be a party leader. Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and John McCain have large Facebook followings, as do party leaders like Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Paul Ryan.

Why are ideological politicians more popular? It may be because, as found by anearlier Pew analysis, these politicians tend to express “indignation or disagreement” in their social media posts. These kinds of post are frequently "liked" and shared widely.

Politicians who want a large social media presence, therefore, have an incentive to be more extreme in their public statements and political ideologies. These conditions, in turn, make it less likely that lawmakers will compromise or moderate their positions, further dividing the two major parties.

In general, Democratic lawmakers have more Facebook followers than Republicans. Democratic House members have a median of 14,676 Facebook followers, while Republicans have only 10,597. In the Senate, Democrats have a median of 39,890 followers, compared to 24,870 for Republican Senators.

Until Americans change what they "like" and "share" online, our politics will continue to reward anger, outrage, and snark, instead of nuance and thoughtfulness.